The Swift Current Broncos are hoping a few days off will help them re-energize and refocus for their final eight games of the Western Hockey League regular season. When the Regina Pats visit the Credit Union iplex the Broncos will have had four full days without a game after playing 11 games over the previous 19 days concluding with a pair of costly losses on home ice to the Chilliwack Bruins and Prince Albert Raiders to open a five-game homestand. It will be the Broncos first four-day stretch without a game since the first week of January.
"It is a great week for us to prepare," said Broncos head coach Mark Lamb. "We have a lot of guys that are playing a lot of minutes and a lot of guys that are pretty beat up, they are hurt and playing through it. We can get some good energy back this week, have some good practices, work on some things, and focus mentally. Our guys are really burnt out mentally, it has been a tough go."
The Broncos were shutout 3-0 on Friday by the Bruins and Sunday they were decidedly outplayed by the Raiders in the second period on their way to a 3-2 loss.
"What is disappointing is our second period," said Lamb. "Both teams were not very good defensively in the first period. So you come out and you want to harden your game up and we got softer. We came out and played a pretty good third period but you have to play for 60 minutes. We just had a real mental lapse in there and it cost us points."
Lamb said it was not a gently chat during the second intermission.
"It was a very hard message. Playing like that you are not going to win anything, you are not going to win a game. I don't know if the guys get too tight in these big games or whatever, but it is about hard work and we just didn't work enough in that second period."
Saturday the Broncos will face one of the toughest tests of their remaining eight games when the Vancouver Giants visit the iplex for the only meeting between the two teams this season.
Our guys are really burnt out mentally, it has been a tough go - Mark Lamb, Broncos head coach
"I don't know much about them at all but I know their coach and I know how they play," explained Lamb. "If you are not going to play for 60 minutes against them then you are going to be in big trouble. That is what we have to learn, during the year you have a lot of experiences and it is what you do about them. You can't keep going through these experiences and not learn from it."
On Saturday the Giants will be playing the final game of their nine-day East Division road trip. They feature the WHL's leading scorer entering the week in Craig Cunningham who had 89 points in 62 games and one of the leading rookie scorers in defenseman Kevin Connauton with 63 points in 60 games.
They were also the top powerplay team in the WHL at 28.2 per cent and second in penalty killing at 84.3 per cent.
"We always look at that. When you have a good powerplay and penalty killing up there at the top of the league then you know they have a pretty balanced team and you have a lot of good skill. When you have good penalty killing then you have good defenders so it looks like they have a pretty balanced team," said Lamb.
Tuesday the Pats will return to Swift Current for the second time in four games.
The Broncos have struggled against the Pats this season earning only five points in six games, while the Pats have taken nine points with a 4-1-0-1 record. In their most recent meeting the visiting Pats downed the Broncos 5-2 on Jan. 23rd.
Cody Eakin leads all Broncos scorers against the rival Pats with four goals and four assists in six games. Not surprisingly Jordan Eberle lead the Pats with six goals and six assists, while Jordan Weal has four goals and five assists.
